Benjamin Rawlinson Faulkner (1787–1849) was an English portrait-painter. Faulkner was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

to William and Eliza Faulkner. He was at first engaged in the mercantile profession and for several years represented a large firm in their establishment at

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. When that place and its garrison were visited by the plague his health suffered so much that he was with difficulty brought home to England. This was about 1813 and during his convalescence he accidentally discovered a talent for drawing which was encouraged by his brother, J. W. Faulkner, an artist of some merit. Under his direction Faulkner devoted himself to assiduous study of the first principles of the art and spent upwards of two years in the study of the antique alone. He then came to London, and practised as a portrait-painter; but he was of so diffident a character and so retiring a disposition that his merits were not held in the same estimation in London as they were in his native town. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821, sending two portraits, and he continued to exhibit regularly up to the year before his death. His contributions were usually portraits, but he occasionally painted studies of natural objects. He resided for many years at 23 Newman Street, and died at North End, Fulham, in his sixty-third year, on 29 Oct. 1849. His best portraits are in Manchester or the neighbourhood. Portraits by him of John Dalton, F.R.S., and John McCulloch, the geologist, are in the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, London. He also contributed to the British Institution,

Suffolk Street Gallery The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

Royal Manchester Institution The Royal Manchester Institution (RMI) was an English learned society founded on 1 October 1823 at a public meeting held in the Exchange Room by Manchester merchants, local artists and others keen to dispel the image of Manchester as a city lack ...

, Liverpool Academy, and other exhibitions. A portrait of Sir John Ross, the Arctic explorer, was lithographed by R. J. Lane, A. R. A., and his pictures have been engraved by C. Heath, H. Robinson, and others. Besides painting, Faulkner was an accomplished musician, and was for some time organist at Irving's church in

Hatton Garden Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favouri ...

. His brother was the portrait artist, Joshua Wilson Faulkner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faulkner, Benjamin Rawlinson 1787 births 1849 deaths Artists from Manchester People from Fulham 19th-century English painters English male painters English portrait painters 19th-century English male artists